Pol Deportes, the Peruvian teenager who went viral by narrating the Copa Libertadores final from a hill and was invited to narrate a Real Madrid Champions League game

“And when I was 7, 8 years old, I worked on the farm with my uncles and they had me tell stories in Quechua.”

At the age of 11, the boy began narrating football games, but he encountered a powerful spirit: fear.

A few people made fun of his stories. “Like any 11-year-old kid, I kept my mouth shut and tuned out for a year and a half. Like I had some trauma after they laughed at me in the stadium and I was afraid it would happen again.”

“When my brother recorded me, I didn’t want him to record my face, and I told him: Look, you will record the wall and I will talk.”

But little by little the boy gained confidence and was encouraged to show his face. “The first time I went live I was stiff as a statue,” he says.

At the age of 13, he began writing stories for the local media company Pasión Deportiva Apurímac. And his brother Kenny convinced him by creating his own platforms under the name Pol Deportes. (They gave him the nickname Pol because he wanted to be a police officer when he was a little boy.)

On this path, which was also marked by economic difficulties, he never lacked something: the unconditional support of his family.

“My brother influenced everything, my brother who was always there,” Cliver tells BBC Mundo.

Kenny, now 19 years old, went to Lima to work and earn money to support his younger brother’s dream.

“My brother had to work to pay for the internet to produce our videos. He had to stop studying.”

Telling the story of football confidently “didn’t happen overnight,” he says, but rather “a fairly long process of three to four years.”

Kenny returned to Andahuaylas from Lima and became his younger brother’s cameraman.

A video they shot of a local game reached six million views and many people in Andahuaylas began cheering them on.

“They supported us and told us, Pol, you have to keep going, Pol, you are the future of Peruvian journalism.”

“And I started saying: There are a lot of people who trust me. I think I have to live up to them and also to my brother, my father and my mother, who have always been there.”

Cliver often remembers the words his mother Lida said to him in Quechua: “You have to follow your dreams. You have to pursue them. We will be there to support you.”

“And that’s when my mindset changed, boom, and I firmly decided to go into this world of journalism and storytelling.”

When Cliver and his brother Kenny traveled to Lima for the Libertadores final, their city’s municipality gave them a bus ticket.

When a local soccer match was broadcast on a giant screen in his town square before his trip to the capital, Cliver was encouraged to grab the microphone and ask for support for his dream of covering a Libertadores game.

“I grabbed the microphone and said: Look, I’m Pol Deportes. I’m going to the Copa Libertadores final. I don’t know if you could support me with your donation.” How to the videos, and I told you a little.

“People were excited, they hugged me, they told me that you have to go, you have to praise Andahuaylas and all this was in my mind that I couldn’t disappoint them all.”

“Some companies have also entrusted us with their grain of sand.”

Upon arriving in Lima, Cliver managed to record interviews with fans of Brazilian clubs, but the police did not allow him to enter the Monumental Stadium.

“I was sad. And I told my brother that we were going to Andahuaylas this afternoon. But he told me that you won’t leave disappointed.”

While they were deciding what to do, they went to the chicken shop of a countryman from their province in Lima, who suggested they walk up the hill.

“He told us I once recorded a video of a chicken being carried up the hill and it got a million views and I think we can go there.”

“On the hill I set up my tripod, I became brave, with my father as a commentator and my brother as a cameraman.”

In the second half, around 10,000 people watched the live broadcast on Tik Tok. The following recording quickly reached one million views.

And all of this with a microphone that his uncle had given him, mounted in a homemade cube that Cliver had assembled himself.

“I made this little cube out of necessity because it wasn’t available in Andahuaylas. I made it out of cardboard and a dishwashing sponge and I still have it with me.”

The experience of arriving in Spain was “super incredible,” says Cliver.

“First of all, I thank God, I thank all the people who support me so I can come to Madrid.”

“The affection of the people here in Spain was incredible. We also gave a concert for Peru and there were many Peruvian compatriots there. I am proud to be Peruvian and happy to be here.”

While preparing for the Champions League game, Cliver shared his predictions for the World Cup.

“I think the favorites for the 2026 World Cup are Spain and Portugal.”

When he returns to Peru, the young man wants to finish high school and study communications.

“There are universities that want to support me and the government wants to give me a scholarship,” he says.

Whatever his path, and thanks in large part to the values ​​he received from his parents, the adolescent “has it figured out.”

BBC Mundo: “One final question. How do you think you will achieve your dream of becoming a journalist?”

Cliver: “With faith, perseverance, work and humility.”

Cliver was interviewed by Agustina Latourrette of the BBC Mundo video team.

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